Posted on 02/11/2024 7:55:35 AM PST by Morgana
Matthew Gooden had not been born when his father, Shawn, began sexually assaulting two young relatives, aged eight and nine.
Matthew spent the first twenty years of his life blissfully unaware of the harrowing truth, leading what he thought was a normal upbringing in the Mormon church, in which his father had risen to the rank of bishop.
It was not until Gooden's arrest in September 2022 that he was exposed as the monster he was.
But to his son's horror, it transpired that church leaders had known of the abuse allegations almost two years earlier, but 'kept it secret' from police and the wider community.
Mormon leader Rhett Hintze was charged by Pennsylvania State Police on January 31 with failing to report a victim's account to the authorities. Instead, the church hierarchy quietly excommunicated Gooden but allowed him to continue attending church functions and meetings with children present, Matthew has claimed.
The shocking case echoes a series of 'cover ups' within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon church, exposed by an extensive DailyMail.com investigation last year.
And Matthew believes it is indicative of its callous attitude towards abuse.
'The church is interested in protecting its leaders, its reputation, and the victims and their families can just go to hell,' he told DailyMail.com.
Matthew describes what he felt was a regular childhood growing up in a Mormon community in Pennsylvania.
His father was a partner at a Harrisburg law firm and an upstanding member of the Mormon community.
He was selected for senior leadership roles, including bishop and first counselor of the Lebanon County ward.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Ping.
They care about their leaders.
If a senior bishop’s kids had been abused by some nobody, I guarantee the hierarchy would care.
All the leaders care about is themselves. Talk about selfish.
If only Mormon bishops could marry.
All power structures protect themselves.
It’s not just the Mormon church.. There’s a pedophile pandemic in most churches. Over 1700 priests have been charged.
“If only Mormon bishops could marry.”
you mean
If only Mormon bishops could marry, more than one wife. LOL
I have said so too. That is why I post these. Even posted stories in non-christian religions.
Out of about 100k. Perspective is needed
It seems the Catholics have the same problem.
I was being kind... The 1700 listed are unsupervised and still working.
As of May 31, 2019, information published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) indicates that the conference has counted 7,002 clerics “not implausibly” and “credibly” accused of sexually abusing minors in the period 1950 through June 30, 2018, with three gaps in the USCCB data. Out of the 118,184 priests who have worked in those years, the 7,002 priests accused of abusing children are 5.9% of the total. The USCCB reports also show that the conference has counted 20,052 victims who are known to the bishops in the period 1950 through June 30, 2018. After a brief introduction, we provide a table showing the sources for those numbers below.
Who are the 7,002 accused priests? Since 2005, BishopAccountability.org has maintained a Database of Accused Priests and other accused clergy. As of November 21, 2019, there were 6,488 names in that database, including 5,808 priests, 35 bishops, 108 deacons, and 47 seminarians, for a total of 5,998 accused clerics and future clerics, in those categories that the USCCB has counted – more than a thousand fewer than 7,002. Note that 370 religious brothers and 119 religious sisters are also listed in our database – categories not included in the USCCB data.
On June 21, 2002, shortly after the epochal USCCB General Assembly meeting in Dallas, the Tucson diocese released a list of accused priests. Other dioceses gradually followed suit, and after the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on August 14, 2018, many more dioceses and religious orders published lists. As of February 16, 2020, 151 U.S. bishops and 23 superiors of religious have published lists of accused – see our collection of links to those lists. Because 27 Latin rite dioceses and many religious order provinces have not released lists, and because the released lists are often incomplete, the released names are far short of the 7,002 priests whom the USCCB has counted as accused.
Abuse Tracker
Daily guide to media coverage of clergy abuse worldwide . . . more than 100,000 articles blogged since 2006:
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/
Name one church that cares about protecting children.
He was selected for senior leadership roles, including bishop and first counselor of the Lebanon County ward
______________________
Again, in Mormon church, the bishop is basically nobody. Kind of like pastor in most churches.
Bishop is major position in hierarchy on most churches, but in Mormonism, - not really, - every local congregation has a bishop.
It's like one giant chess board.
Two sides: black and white.
Fourteen men and two women.
A white man always makes the first move.
The most powerful players are women.
The king is a mere figurehead, to be protected by the others.
The majority of the players are just pawns.
Bishops move diagonally.
But I think they can and do marry.
No, they wouldn't
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